In fishing for game fish such as marlin, sailfish and the like, it is customary for the sport fisherman to sit in a fishing chair mounted on the boat. A conventional fishing chair which is illustrated by the Esposito, patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,289, has an upstanding back rest and a seat which pivot about a pedestal that is mounted on the boat deck. From the underside of the seat there generally extends outwardly a footrest so that the fisherman may brace himself while landing a fish while at the front edge of the seat, a rod holder is pivotally mounted so that the butt end of the fishing rod may be received therein. All known seats are conventional full buttocks pads generally with back rests and some are provided with arm rests. The rod holder is designed to be pivoted at least about a horizontal axis so that the fisherman may work the rod back and forth while reeling in a fish, sometimes known as pumping the rod. As might be imagined, to land a game fish is a strenuous and time consuming job and depending upon the size of the fish, it is not uncommon for someone to spend upwards of four hours in landing a fish. In utilizing the conventional arrangement, the fisherman employes his arms, shoulders and back muscles to pivot the rod from let us say approximately a 45 degree attitude to an upright position in order to reel the fish in slowly. Thus, in operation, the rod will be pulled back towards the fisherman and then rapidly let downwardly while the line is reeled in as fast as possible. This is a very fatiguing operation. In the prior art there have been some suggestions to alleviate the exhausting operation as for example, in the Quartullo U.S. Pat. No., 3,851,916. In this disclosure a fishing chair is arranged in such a way that the seat slides back and forth while the fisherman uses his leg muscles rather than his arm muscles. Of a similar nature is a disclosure in the Arruza U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,676. There is also in the prior art a pole holder which may be rocked from normal trolling position into an upright position in order to set the hook. Such an arrangement is seen in the Mandolare U.S. Pat. No. 3,126,180.
For small boats the usual fishing chair is an extremely bulky object and is not suited to 25 foot boats. While small seat have been seen in patents such as Funk, U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,766, this type of arrangement is not suitable for game fishing. While Arrow U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,438 discloses a conventional seat mounted in a small boat for offshore fishing, there is no disclosure of a long, narrow saddle seat that takes up little space and is very comfortable.